Pop Mart Is Addictive by Design

Stop beautifying Pop Mart – it is essentially a kind of “gambling disguised as a toy”.

The core of the blind box is: you pay, but you don’t know what you will get. It may be the hidden Labubu you want, or it may be the third duplicate. This “uncertainty” is not a defect, but an addictive mechanism designed.

Does it sound familiar? Because this is the logic of gambling.

The whole “blind box” model is based on a simple but extremely effective psychological mechanism: you don’t know what you will get. From the moment of payment to unpacking, this brief gap is the real “product” – expectation, tension, and release. In other words, it is dopamine.

And this is not just an exaggeration. Uncertain results are more likely than certain results to trigger stronger and longer-lasting dopamine reactions, thus reinforcing repetitive behaviour and even inducing addiction-like patterns.

However, this mechanism is often ignored or weakened in public discussion.

Crowd scene at Pop Mart store in Thailand. Source: Nation Thailand Pop Mart store promotional image. Source: LinkedIn, Pop Mart Official Page

This psychological mechanism is particularly obvious in real consumption behaviour. When you walk into the Pop Mart store, you will soon see this phenomenon. Someone bought several blind boxes at a time, kept shaking and guessing, and then said to himself, “Just one more.” Some people will even resell duplicates just to continue the next purchase. At this stage, it is no longer “collection”, but “chasing”.

Moreover, the scale of this phenomenon is not small at all. Pop Mart is not a niche brand, but a “billion-dollar business” built on this mechanism. In 2024 alone, the company’s revenue will exceed 1.8 billion US dollars. The entire blind box market is also expanding rapidly. At present, the global scale has exceeded 14 billion US dollars and is still growing.

This is not just a popular trend, but a business model that is deliberately designed to make people consume continuously.

If this behaviour happens in a casino, will we still think it is “cute”?

In the end, the difference between the blind box and the slot machine is actually just the appearance. One is the flashing light, and the other is Labubu.

Blind box unboxing image (screenshot). Source: YouTube video

YouTube – Blind box unboxing video

What’s more alarming is that this model has been completely “normalised”. Social media packaged it as a trend. Bloggers shoot unboxing videos, which only show excitement, but not the cost – they can’t see how much money it spent, they can’t see the repeated setbacks, let alone the cycle of “try again”.

Pop Mart is not a success by chance. It is precisely designed. What it is realising is uncertainty, emotional stimulation, and people’s fear of “missing”.

The blind box is not just a toy. It is a consumption mechanism that deserves to be re-examined and even regulated. Because when a product relies on the “addiction mechanism” to drive consumption, it is no longer just a simple commodity.